1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microfilm camera for printing the amount of money with a magnetic ink on an addressed bill or check, the amount of money being originally written on the addressed bill or check with an ordinary ink, and for photographing the image of the addressed bill or check on a microfilm.
2. Prior Art
An addressed bill or check is written with an amount of money by the drawer, and then brought to a bank by the payee after being written with the endorsement.
The bank receiving the bill or check sorts the bill or check, prints the amount of money on the bill or check with a magnetic ink, and photographs the image of the bill or check on a microfilm which is stored for recording. The bill or check is transferred to the exchange center for exchanging bills and checks to be distributed to the designated bank so that the amount of money of the bill or check is pulled down from the bank account in the designated bank.
In order to read the amount of money and sort of each addressed bill or check in an automated system, the amount of money and characters identifying the bill or check are printed with a magnetic ink. The recognition of characters printed with a magnetic ink is referred to as magnetic ink character recognition and will be abridged as MICR throughout the specification and appended claims.
The data, other than the amount of money, including the sort and other information is printed by MICR through an MICR printer at the time of issuance of the bills or checks. Such data include, for example, the sort of the bill or check, the discrimination mark for discriminating whether the bill or check is issued from the same bank or another bank, the code number of the bank, the classification mark to identify the sort of the bill, such as payment bill, commercial bill or mortgage bill, the name or code number of the bill exchange center, the branch code number and date.
Since the amount of money is written at the time when the bill or check is drawn, the amount of money must be printed for MICR by the bank to which the bill or check is brought. In the conventional system, MICR printing of the amount of money is instructed manually by an operator through a keyboard. The operator reads the amount of money written in the column for identifying the amount of money, and inputs the amount of money by typewriting the numeral keys on the keyboard.
FIG. 6 shows a conventional system or microfilm camera for carrying out the MICR printing and microfilm photographing of the bill or check; FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the processing sequence through which each bill or check is handled; FIG. 8 is an illustration showing a part of the microfilm on which images of bills or checks are photographed; FIG. 9 is a bill before it is drawn; and FIG. 10 is a bill after it is printed for MICR.
A bill or check is issued initially from a bank (Step 100 in FIG. 7). FIG. 9 shows an issued bill A on which data showing the sort of the bill or other necessary information is written. In FIG. 9, a designates a column for writing the number of the bill, b designates a column for writing the name and number of the exchange center, c designates a column for writing the due date for payment, d designates a column for writing the place of payment, e designates a column for writing the domicile of payment, f designates a column for writing the date of drawing, g designates a column for writing the domicile of drawing, and h designates a column for writing the name of drawer. The column for writing the amount of money is denoted by i. The column j is the column for writing the name of drawer.
Amongst these columns a to j, the columns other than c, f, g, h and i have been written with an ordinary ink other than a magnetic ink at the time of issuance of the bill or check from the bank. The columns c, f, g, h and i are filled by writing by the drawer at the drawing of the bill. These columns may be filled by writing with the use of a special instrument, such as a check writer.
Columns k and m for MICR printing are arranged at the lower portion of the bill A. Data relating to the identification of the bill including the sort and other necessary information is printed for MICR in the column k. For instance, the sort of the bill, the number of the exchange center, the name of the bank, the branch name, the account number of the drawer for settling the amount of money and the number of the bill have been written with numeral and symbol characters at the time of issuance of the bill. The column m is a blank column in which the amount of money is to be printed for MICR.
The drawer draws the bill A after writing the amount of money and other necessary information (Step 102). The payee of the thus drawn bill A (see FIG. 9) writes the endorsement (Step 104), and brings the bill to a bank (Step 106). The bank prints, with a magnetic ink, the amount of money written in the column i for MICR in the column m of the bill A using a microfilm camera 1 shown in FIG. 6 (Step 108).
In the microfilm camera 1, a group of bills B which is sorted, for example, as issued from the same bank is conveyed from a feeder 2 for containing the bills through a conveying passage 3 to a stacker 4 one by one. An MICR printer 5, with a magnetic ink, and an optical system 6 are disposed along the conveying passage 3. The MICR printer 5 prints the amount of money in the MICR print column m in response to the instruction from a controller 7 to which the amount of money is inputted through a keyboard 8.
An operator 9 reads the amount of money from the column i of each bill B placed on the feeder 2 to input the amount of money through the numeral keys of the keyboard 8. The controller 7 discriminates the amount of money inputted through the keyboard 8 at the key input discriminating section 7a to instruct the MICR printer 5 to carry out MICR printing in the MICR print column m. By this processing, the bill B is processed to the bill C shown in FIG. 10.
The processed bill C is fed to the optical system 6 where it is photographed on a microfilm 10. The microfilm 10 is supplied from a supply reel 11, and conveyed through a photographing roller 12 to a take-up reel 13. The microfilm 10 moves on the upper half circumference of the photographing roller 12 while in firm contact with the roller 12 on which the images on the obverse and reverse sides of the bill C are focused by the optical system 6. As the result, the images C1 and C2 on the obverse and reverse sides of the bill are photographed side by side with each other as shown in FIG. 8 (Step 110 in FIG. 7).
The controller 7 includes a sorting and totalizing section 7b by which the amounts of money inputted through the keyboard 8 are totalized, and the result of totalization is outputted through a printer 14 with other data such as date, names of the banks, etc. The printed output is referred to as a jounal print 15. The journal print 15 is sent to the optical system 6 to be photographed at a predetermined position, for example, at the fore end or aft end of the microfilm 10 (Step 112 in FIG. 7). The photographed image of the journal print 15 is denoted by 15A in FIG. 8.
However, the prior art microfilm camera has a problem that the amount of money must be inputted manually by the operator, thereby lowering the operation efficiency. In addition, there is a fear of mistake in the manual input operation. Another problem is that the accuracy and operation speed depends on the skillfulness of the operator.